<i>Inspired by PG's list of start-ups he'd like to fund</i><p>A cursory Google reveals no one doing this, but I reserve the right to be wrong.<p>Instead of a "profile-centric" dating site, i.e. a site that essentially just displays/matches profiles, then leaves it up to the users to arrange meetings, I'd like to create a "date-centric" dating site.<p>The site would have specific, pre-fabricated dates. For example, if you were in LA (as I am), one date might be "Friday at 6PM: A stroll through Universal City walk and drinks at Saddle Ranch (don't forget to ride the bull!)" Another could be "Sunday at 9AM: A morning hike to the Hollywood sign followed by pancakes at Roscoes."<p>The dates would fill up on a first-come, first-served basis (think poker sit-n-go's).<p>As you can see, the idea is to be a little less focused on creating perfect matches and a little more focused on creating fun dates.<p>To that end, many of the dates could be double or even triple dates. A group of two or three guys (or gals) could sign up for something they always wanted to do and have a few members of the opposite (or same) sex show up to join them.<p>Perhaps profiles could put some limits on the type of person one would like to date (age, hobbies, etc.) but overall, the dates themselves would probably be a pretty good filter. The type of person that shows up for the "sushi and night club" date is likely different from the person who shows up for the "hiking and picnic" date.<p>Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
I think its a really neat idea, but I think there is a security fear. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that with other websites, people generally get to know someone via email, IMs, etc... before going on a date so they can be relatively sure that the person won't be violent, etc... I don't see a good way to do any such screening of people (either by the website or by the other users) before they meet.
If I were dating, why would I potentially waste hours with getting ready for a date and going on the actual date, if I had no clue whatsoever who was going to come and if I liked them at all to begin with?<p>I think there is a huge psychological barrier for people to go on such dates. The more 'successful' they are, the greater the opportunity costs with your model. You probably would have a self-selection mechanism that leads to weirdos etc coming.
Hmmm. I don't think that a completely profile-less site would work. Users would be too worried about meeting a weirdo, someone they found deeply unattractive, or someone with highly different creed. Er, think of a strongly Christian person "dating" a staunch Atheist. Users would want at least some way of weeding out dates that would be time-wasters.<p>But if the profile and the date were intermingled somehow, then yeah, that might work.
Like you, I also read PG's list of startups he'd like to fund. The "dating" item ends with this: "So if you want to do a dating startup, don't focus on the novel take on dating that you're going to offer. That's the easy half. Focus on novel ways to get around the chicken and egg problem."<p>I'm not seeing your solution to the chicken and egg problem here.